Honda endure painful flashback with massive Aston Martin fiasco

The look at Aston Martin spoke volumes. On Wednesday, Adrian Newey, Enrico Cardile, Lance Stroll and owner Lawrence Stroll were captured on the terrace of their building at the Bahrain circuit. 

Stroll tried to explain the car's behaviour, after which Newey sighed heavily. Its pre-season test had come to a dramatic end.

It had started so promisingly for Aston Martin. Although the car arrived late in Barcelona, it looked particularly aggressive. 

Newey opted for extreme aerodynamic solutions, which, combined with the Honda engine, many assumed would lead to a competitive combination - especially considering the facilities available to both parties.

But that picture faded very quickly. Both Fernando Alonso and Stroll shot off the track on numerous ocassions and the car was struck with significant reliability problems. 

A battery problem on the penultimate day of testing was the main concern, with the internal combustion engine dramatically climbing to max revs out of nowhere, causing Aston Martin to miss almost all of Friday.

Honda, meanwhile, is at a loss. The complex engine lacks considerable power, as well as being unreliable. On Friday, there was reportedly only one battery left, resulting in a total of less than 400 laps over three tests. By comparison, Mercedes tallied 1,204.

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McLaren catastrophe from 2015

It must lead to painful flashbacks for both Honda and Alonso. 11 years ago, then in partnership with McLaren, a similar situation arose during pre-season testing.

Alonso and Jenson Button faced issues at every turn and were stuck with a car that was incredibly slow. 

At the first race in Australia, Button finished two laps behind, while Alonso did not even make it to the opening round due to a mysterious crash at testing.

The collaboration would ultimately never succeed. Honda couldn't manage to recover the huge deficit that existed to the front-runners and the pair split at the end of 2017.

The Japanese supplier then switched to Toro Rosso and Red Bull, where great successes were eventually achieved with Max Verstappen.

How the situation at Aston Martin will develop, of course, remains to be seen. 

Still, Honda will fear for the start of the season, because it's clear the problems will not be solved overnight.